Our “Interrobang” Moment Structure, Leadership, and Membership, Is Made to Be (2019 State-Of-The-Church Message) Re-Cycled
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November 2019 That’s the thought I want to grab for this, my third its Our “Interrobang” Moment structure, leadership, and membership, is made to be (2019 State-of-the-Church message) re-cycled. I like the way Bishop Crutchfield once put it, that “what we do tomorrow is much more important than we did yesterday.” Senior Pastor Rev. Siegfried S. Johnson As anchored as we are in the theologies and Charge Conference traditions that have defined us and shaped our Pastor’s Report: heritage, no church should be static. This re-cycling theme is with us at Charge Conference each year, November 17, 2019 reading names of those to be removed through transfer or death, and seeing the names of those having joined the church. Church growth is all about Years ago telephone companies yanked the cord on re-cycling, gaining new members who covenant with residential phonebooks. In 2010 Verizon and AT&T us to support the church with requested exemptions from state mandates requiring prayers/presence/gifts/service/witness. Christ of the telecommunications companies to distribute residential Hills will be a vital and vibrant congregation only the phone books in paper form. It’s no wonder regulators extent we are being re-shaped (or, shall I say, re- granted the go-ahead to stop mass-printing residential cycled?) in a healthy way. phone books, since they had for years become a musty fixture of Americans’ kitchen counters, refrigerator tops, Perhaps you’re wondering about my title, Our and junk drawers. “Interrobang” Moment? I read an article in The Wall Street Journal that talked about changes in written In our day, most of us have our frequently called language, specifically, in punctuation. We all know numbers in our smart devices and, for other numbers, the standard punctuation marks: the period, the our first impulse is to check the Internet, not to drag out a comma, the colon and semi-colon, the apostrophe, phone book. Professor Robert Thompson of Syracuse, the question mark, the exclamation mark, etc. tongue firmly in cheek, no doubt, wrote that “Anybody Written languages didn’t arrive as a gift from heaven who doesn’t have access to some kind of online way to complete with punctuation embedded into their look things up is probably too old to be able to read the orthography. No, but rather punctuation devices print in the white pages anyway!” gradually emerged, created by writers as aids to The world is vastly different from the time when the first express to the reader how they wish a thought to be read, making text more impactful. phone book was issued, in 1878, a mere 141 years ago. No book was needed. It was a single page covering the fifty customers of New Haven, Connecticut. The church, like languages, must evolve in order for the message to be more impactful. This is, of course, A doctoral student at Northwestern University, writing her the tension we feel as a denomination, especially as dissertation on the history of phone books, wrote of its gradual disappearance, “It’s sort of heartbreaking . Continued on page 2 even though these books are essentially made to be destroyed .” Perhaps she might have said (to be more environmentally conscious), “made to be re-cycled.” That’s the thought I want to grab for this, my third State- of -the-Church message to Christ of the Hills. The church -- not in its essential theologies and core values -- but in 700 Balearic Road Hot Springs Village, AR 71909 501-922-4503 Website: www.cohumc.com Continued from page 1 2020’s General Conference looms on the immediate All Saints Day horizon. What will be our way forward through and out of the intense polarization United Methodists feel Friday , Nov. 1 due to embracing opposite views on issues surrounding human sexuality? Labyrinth open More to the point of this State-of-the-Church message: what will the impact be on the local 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. church?! I ask that question with both a Question November 1 is All Saints Day. This is a time in the Mark (?) and an Exclamation Mark (!) – the liturgical year when we pause to celebrate the lives of Interrobang?! those who have joined the company of the saints within the last year. The circuitous path of the labyrinth is The Interrobang, blending those two marks into one symbolic of the spiritual journey we are on. It is a path mark, was first suggested in 1962 and is edging its that winds sometimes close to the center and sometimes way into our language. It’s simply a combination of a on the outer margins. This pathway represents the question and an exclamation. For example, if Chuck Miller reports TWO holes-in-one while playing in our spiritual journey that sometimes draws people near and church group this year at Cortez – not only in a sometimes far away from God-centered intention. Take single round but on the SAME nine– we might say, this opportunity to walk the labyrinth in prayer, light a “You did what??!!” The Interrobang is perfect for candle, say a prayer in memory of your loved ones who such a moment, the kind of story the national media have joined the Communion of Saints. picks up -- asking a Question of the hard-to-believe moment with an Exclamation. In short, the Interrobang is the recognition of a Happening that has Bang to it. Which is why I like the Interrobang as a symbol for my 2019 State-of- the -Church message. It says something about where Choir Cantata I, as Senior Pastor, think we are. Question marks? You bet. We have them as we live into our new Sunday, structure, which we opened and dedicated in 2019. Yes, but let’s add an Exclamation Mark to those December 15 questions, for the future is bright with promise. 3:00 p.m. I count it an honor and a privilege to serve Christ of the Hills at the appointment of Bishop Mueller and his cabinet, along with my clergy colleagues, Rev. Feel the peace of the Christmas season Sheila Jones and Pastor Steve Friese. My goal is to help make 2020 an Interrobang kind of year for our through the Chancel Choir’s presentation of church as, in the midst of the questions surrounding And On Earth, Peace. With a 21-piece our denomination and our local congregation, we orchestra to accompany the 50+ voice choir, emphatically step forward to live into the many this special musical presentation will be presented at CHO on Sunday, December, 15 at opportunities afforded us by our unique demographic in Hot Springs Village. 3:00 p.m. in the sanctuary. Familiar carols, classic Christmas tunes, beautiful new Siegfried S. Johnson Christmas selections and featured solosts Sr. Pastor Jennifer, Sweet, Kristen McCauley and Daryl Taylor will fill our sanctuary with joyous music as we retell the story of the birth of the Prince of Peace. The Office will be closed on Thursday Be sure to invite your friends and neighbors to and Friday, November 28 & 29. In share in this special musical offering for the Christmas season. case of emergency, please e-mail [email protected] or leave a message on the answering machine. Advent Study ALTAR FLOWERS 4 Tuesdays If you would like to give flowers for November 19-December 17 morning worship services in memory or 1:00-2:30 p.m. in honor of a loved one, or to celebrate an anniversary, birthday or special event, here is some helpful information: “A remarkable gift can arrive in an unremarkable package. One did in There is a book in the Information Bethlehem more than 2,000 years Center for you to select a date and sign your name. Pages for 2020 have ago. No one expected God to already been added to the book. come the way he did. Yet the way You pay the church, which in turn will pay the florist. He came was every bit as important as the coming itself. Flower prices are as follows: $35 for a vase of altar The manger is the message. In this four-session video Bible flowers; $35 for flowers on the visitor’s table; $42 for study, Max Lucado will help YOU explore how the One who flowers on the fellowship table and $40 for The Gathering made everything chose to make himself nothing for us. He Altar experienced hunger and thirst. He went through the stages If you wish to give a rosebud, please call the office with of human development. He was taught to walk, stand, and the information you wish printed in the bulletin. Cost of the wash his face. He was completely and genuinely human. rosebud is $10. Persons who give flowers may take their flowers Because of Bethlehem, we no longer have marks on our following the second service, or by noon on Monday. record . just grace. We have the promise that God is Please return the green sleeve and/or the white vase always near us, always for us, always within us—and that which contain the flowers by Wednesday noon of the same we have a friend and Savior in heaven. Long after the guests week. have left, the carolers have gone home, and the lights have come down, these promises endure.” The cost for the participant book is $5.00. You may sign up in the Information Center. It will be helpful for you to Meets the first & read the Introduction and 1st Chapter prior to the first class.